


these lovely two are you and i

by isignedupforthis



Category: Lovely Little Losers
Genre: (Characters Are Oblivious), F/F, Miscommunication, Oblivious, Pre-Series, Secret dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-21 05:55:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6040738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isignedupforthis/pseuds/isignedupforthis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We’re not secretly dating,” Paige insisted. “We’re just friends.”<br/>“You’re not friends. You’re pals. Gal pals. You probably cuddle and watch Heavenly Creatures.”<br/>“PAULINE AND JULIET WERE IN LOVE!”<br/>“People died, Paige.”</p><p>That one time everyone except for Paige and Chelsey knew that Paige and Chelsey were not-so-secretly secretly dating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	these lovely two are you and i

**Author's Note:**

> "There are living among two dutiful daughters. Of a man who possesses two beautiful daughters, you cannot know nor yet try to guess, the sweet soothingness of their caress, the outstanding genius of this pair is understood by few, they are so rare... compared with these two, every man is a fool, the world is most honoured that they should deign to rule, and I worship the power of these lovely two, with that adoring love known to so few. 'Tis indeed a miracle, one must feel, that two such heavenly creatures are real, hatred burning bright in the brown eyes with enemies for fuel, icy scorn glitters in the gray eyes, contemptuous and cruel. Why are men such fools they will not realize, the wisdom that is hidden behind those strange eyes and these wonderful people are you and I." (-Heavenly Creatures, 1994)

Paige Moth tried to manage not to mind Chelsey Long across the room from her, talking to another person.

It wasn’t that she was jealous or anything; but since she had invited Chelsey to her friend’s flat-warming party, they would actually spend time together. But come to think of it, it also made sense to Paige that Chelsey would want other friends, being new to Wellington and it being the start of their first year; hell, the only reason that they knew each other was through their sociology course. She should make other friends. Paige was totally fine with Chelsey making other friends. She was also totally fine with how Chelsey looked in her red coat.

Totally. Fine.

“Hello? Earth to Paige?”

She realized that she had distracted herself in the middle of a conversation with the party’s host. Jaquie Manders sat next to her on the couch, with one hand on an exposed waist from the grey kit crop top she wore, and vehemently waving the other in front of Paige’s face. She blinked frantically, looking back to where Chelsey was, but she was gone. Paige sighed. Where had she gone? Was she still off with Costa? Paige prayed that he wasn’t trying to wrap the girl into yet another one of his ongoing “projects…”

“ _Paige!_ ” Jaquie had resorted to snapping her fingers to get Paige’s attention. The sound startled Paige back to reality, refocusing her on her friend.

“Yeah, um, sorry. What were you saying about your bartending? The prick who asked for a bloody Tamora even though you didn’t know what a bloody Tamora was did what again?”

“Got arrested for murder,” Jaquie provided, eyebrow raised. “I finished that story three minutes ago.”

“Right, sorry, I just—“

 Before she could come up with an excuse for herself, Paige felt someone gently grab her forearm. The presence was so recognizable, she knew who they were before they had even spoken.

 “Sorry to interrupt!” Chelsey apologized. “Paige, it’s getting late and I have an audition early tomorrow.”

Paige rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me it’s for Costa.”

“So what if it is?”

“You know how I feel about Costa!”  
“Everyone knows how you feel about Costa,” Jaquie said.

“Could we get going?” Chelsey pouted, pulling her arm.

With a sigh, Paige gave in. There was no way she could say no to a classic “Chelsey Long Really Needs You To Do Something” pout. “Fi-“

“Actually, could I just have another two minutes with Paige, Chels?” Jaquie interrupted, grabbing Paige by the shoulders and pulling her towards her, her chest pressed against Paige’s backside and her chin resting on her shoulder.

“Sure.” Chelsey nodded with a smile, pulling out her phone and unlocking it.

“Alone, please?” Jaquie insisted.

Paige looked to Jaquie, confused at what she could possibly have to say that Chelsey couldn’t here. She turned to see Chelsey’s brow furrow. Her eyes flickered between Jaquie and Paige, her once friendly smile slowly fading into a perplexed, forced one. Paige couldn’t register what she was feeling from her facial expressions as she backed away. And Paige had learned to almost always be able to know what Chelsey was thinking.

“Oh. Well, thanks for the party, Jaquie. Paige, I’ll be outside.”

Paige watched the girl in the red dress make her way through the house and out the door. She snapped her head back to Jaquie, who was watching her watch Chelsey.

“What was that for?”

Jaquie reached her hand out to Paige. “You’re coming with me. And we are going to talk.”

Paige took her hand. “Okay?”

* * *

Paige followed Jaquie through the house, to Jaquie’s room, without much talking at all. Her host shut the door and locked it, pointing at the bed and commanding: “Sit.”

Paige obliged, making room for herself by pushing the as-of-yet unpacked boxes on the bed, still confused as to what her friend’s plans were. Chelsey was probably outside, waiting for her...how long was this going to take?

Jaquie sat across from her at her desk’s chair, pulling her knee up to her chest and pressing her knuckles to her cheek. Paige recognized this as the classic “Jaquie Manders Is Done With Your Shit” face.

Oh boy.

Paige attempted small talk to alleviate the tension. “Nice party you’ve got going on here.”

“I didn’t organize it.”

“It was Costa, wasn’t it?”

Jaquie ignored the question.

“I’m your best friend, right?” she questioned.

“Ever since St. Miranda’s.” Paige responded dutifully.

“And best friends we don’t hide things from each other, right?”

“Where are you going with this?”

“How long have you two been dating?” Jaquie ordered.

Paige squinted. “I’m sorry, who?”

“You and Chelsey. For how long have you been hiding this from me?” Jaquie pressed, her tone growing impatient.

It took a solid twenty of dead silence between them for Paige to realize what Jaquie was implying; then, a solid thirty seconds of laughter for her to realize that Jaquie wasn’t joking.

“I’m sorry, _what?”_

“Chelsey Long? The girl from Dargaville? Who you literally did not stop ogling all night? Who you are going home with tonight? I know the two of you are secretly dating.” Jaquie explained. “And you haven’t told me. Of all people, you haven’t told me. I know everything about everyone, and my best friend chose not to tell me that she’s seeing someone!”

“I’m sorry, Jaquie, you do know that not all gay women are dating each other right? We are capable of platonic relationships.”

“I’m gay too, idiot.”

“And everyday I’m grateful for that.”

“Paige!”

“We’re not _secretly dating_ ,” Paige insisted. “We’re just friends.”

“You’re not friends. You’re pals. _Gal pals._ You probably cuddle and watch _Heavenly Creatures._ ”

“PAULINE AND JULIET WERE IN LOVE!”

“People died, Paige.”

“I’m not having this conversation anymore,” Paige jumped off of the bed, unlocked the bedroom door and ran through the crowd that had emerged around Costa, who was performing party tricks.

“You can’t hide forever, Moth!” Jaquie called after her.

Paige didn’t stop until she escaped the flat.

* * *

 

Paige had left the car unlocked, so Chelsey had let herself into the passenger seat. Her headphones plugged in to her phone, she hummed along to the music, trying not to think about whatever Jaquie and Paige were discussing.

_Oh, oh where ya wanna sing it?_

The last that she had seen, they were heading for Jaquie’s room.

_I wanna shake her up like you_

“A few minutes,” Jaquie said.

_When I've nothing left to lose_

She was totally fine with a few minutes.

  _I never believed her._

But it had been more than a few minutes.

 She was totally fine.

 Totally. Fine.

 Chelsey hadn’t heard Paige approach the car, so when the driver’s door opened and Paige frantically entered, she squealed.

 “Warn me the next time you do that!”

 “Sorry to interrupt, but we need to go. _Now._ ” Chelsey said nothing as Paige’s hands shook as she fumbled for her keys. She started the car. And they drove.

* * *

 

No matter how hard she tried, Chelsey couldn’t get Paige to look at her. And when Chelsey Long tries, she really tries. Her friend’s eyes stayed focused on the road ahead of them, ignoring all of Chelsey’s attempts to catch them.

 Screw it.

“So that was a nice party Jaquie had going on,” Chelsey commented, hoping small talk might help.

“She didn’t organize it.”

“No, she doesn’t seem like a big party person. Was it Costa?” Chelsey asked. “I feel like that they’re going to be very…interesting flat mates.”

“Oh, definitely,” Paige agreed. She snorted. “Jaquie told me that Costa was up until 4 am reciting Marlowe last night.”

“Yikes,” Chelsey cringed. “…What else did you and Jaquie talk about?”

The car slammed to a stop.

“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine!” Chelsey apologized, shrugging. “I just…was curious, is all.”

Paige turned to her.

“Did she say something about me? Does she not like me? Because it’s okay, if she doesn’t like me…what do I need to do for her to like me, exactly?”

“No, she likes you, Chelsey,” Paige explained. “It’s just…she had to ask me something.”

“Oh.” Chelsey considered it. She _knew it._ “Well, I’m happy for you two!”

“What?” Paige squinted. “No, not that! She actually…she thought _we were._ ”

Chelsey’s jaw dropped. They weren’t…and Jaquie thought that they were…wow. “ _Us?_ ”

“She thought that we were hiding it from everyone, and since Jaquie’s, well, _Jaquie_ , she wanted to know what was going on.” Paige tapped the steering wheel.

“ _Us?_ ” Chelsey couldn’t help but laugh. So she wasn’t..and Jaquie thought they were _…incredible_.

“I know, right? Like we’d ever—” Paige glanced at Chelsey, their eyes meeting for the first time since they had left Jaquie’s and Costa’s party. For some reason, Chelsey felt something stirring in her stomach, her cheeks burning, her weight shifting in the passenger’s seat as she leaned towards Paige...

Who then burst into a coughing fit.

Chelsey focused her eyes on the radio. How had she been able to stand Wellington Access Radio for this long? She switched it to Radio Active, the local uni’s variety show. “Yeah, it’s like... girls who like girls can just be friends. Not _girlfriends_.”

“That’s what I said! It’s 2014,” Paige agreed, recovering from her slight choking fit. She looked to the radio’s clock, then groaned. “Shit, my flat mates are going to kill me if I sneak in now.”

“They’re trying that curfew thing, right?”

“Would you mind it if I crashed at yours?” Paige asked, pulling up to Chelsey’s flat.

“Awfully funny thing to ask right after you just told me that your best friend thinks that we’re dating,” Chelsey teased, feigning distress as she lifted her hand to her forehead. “I hope you’re not taking advantage of me, Miss Moth!”

“Can I stay or not?”

“Absolutely.”

“Thank you!” Paige grinned, grabbing her friend’s hand and lacing their fingers together. They walked up the pathway to Chelsey’s home.

Just friends.

Totally. Fine.

* * *

 

Paige didn’t know what she was thinking. Hand-holding? _Seriously_?

It’s different with women loving women, she convinced herself. They were a generally more affectionate group of people, more likely to be physically expressive with their feelings, whether they were platonic or romantic.

Girls hold hands all of the time. Girls sleep over at each other’s houses all of the time. Girls think of running their fingers through each other’s hair, caressing each other’s faces as they pulled each other close and cuddled in the moonlight, etc. … all of the time.

It was totally normal!

The lovely thing about Chelsey’s flat was that no one was ever home. Or at least, if they were home, no one ever left their rooms to complain about their flat mates coming and leaving in the middle of the night. It did make sense, though; it was too early in the semester for Chelsey’s flat mates to have made any plans or to have fallen into any routines. The only reason that Chelsey was out as frequently as she was was because she was always Paige’s plus one to her Wellington friends’ parties.

They crept through the small house until they had made it to Chelsey’s room. Her friend pulled open her set of drawers, withdrawing two stacks of pajamas for the both of them. Paige noted that Chelsey had mixed the pajama tops and bottoms, but said nothing.

“You know where the bathroom is,” Chelsey handed Paige her bundle, then removed her own jacket.

“I’ll just get changed in the closet,” Paige offered. Paige then immediately regretted her words.

Chelsey raised her eyebrow, her lips teasing an amused smirk. “…Haven’t you spent enough time in there?”

“I don’t want to wake anybody by turning on the lights,” Paige elaborated. “It’s less of a hassle that way.”

“…Okay.”

* * *

 

It was a bit of a struggle trying not to slam her arms against the closet door as slid her pajamas on, but Paige managed. Once she was done, she knocked on the door twice. Girls shared clothes all of the time, but girls definitely did not invade their fellow girls’ privacy.

“I’m decent!” Chelsey’s voice muffled. Paige opened the door to see her dear friend laying stomach flat on the bed, ankles crossed and hair down, a laptop in front of her. Her casualty about how absolutely stunning she looked made Paige wonder if anyone had every written Chelsey a pining love song. She wondered if Chelsey would like one.

That is, a pining love song about platonic friendship love from her dearest totally-not-girlfriend girl friend Paige.    

(It was totally normal!)

“I thought you had an audition early tomorrow?” Paige taunted.

Chelsey side-eyed her. “I may or may not have fibbed a teensy bit.”

“Chelsey Demi Long, you lied to me!” Paige gasped dramatically. Her friend rolled her eyes. She belly flopped, aiming so that she landed right next to Chelsey, causing the girl shout: “Ahh! _Warn me the next time you do that!_ ”

“Warn me the next time you lie so that you can escape a party,” Paige taunted. “Why did you want to leave, then?”

“Do you want to watch _Heavenly Creatures_?” Chelsey ignored the question.

“Sure.”

About halfway through the movie, Chelsey realized that Paige had fallen asleep. This would have been fine with Chelsey, as along as she would be able to slip away, pull out a blanket for herself, and sleep on the floor.

But, alas.

They had somehow ended up wrapped in Chelsey’s sheets, with Paige’s arm linked with hers, and Paige’s head leaning against her shoulder. Chelsey could feel her friend’s breath against upper arm, warm and soft, as she exhaled.

Chelsey could only smile as sleep took its toll on her.

 _No wonder Jaquie thinks we’re dating_ , Chelsey thought, eyes fluttering shut. _Sometimes, even I forget that we’re not._

* * *

 

Morning came. And with it, so did a realization for Paige Moth.

As she adjusted to the scene around her, she realized that her limbs were tangled up with Chelsey’s limbs. Her arms were around Chelsey. Her body was pressed against Chelsey’s.

And Paige Moth realized that most girls did not do this.

“Chelsey?” Paige whispered.

“Yes, babe?” Chelsey mumbled.

 _Babe._ Paige couldn’t help but smile. She liked the sound of _babe_ coming off of her lips.

“Why aren’t we dating?”

“I don’t know, why aren’t we?” Chelsey twisted herself so that she faced Paige. There was only a centimetric gap between them. But Paige didn’t feel her cheeks burn, or her stomach turn. She didn’t feel afraid.

“I thought you wanted to be friends.”

“I thought you liked Jaquie.”

“I think we should stop thinking.”

“What should we do instead?”

Paige had a few ideas, starting with _kissing Chelsey Long_.

But before she could carry through, someone knocked at the door.

“Chelsey? Are you in there? It’s Jaquie.”

Paige threw herself off of the bed.

“I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted last night.”

She rolled under the bed.

“Paige is my very good friend and I’m just looking out for her. I get it, you two are just friends.”

Paige managed to fling her arm from underneath the mattress to cover Chelsey’s mouth from bursting into laughter.

“I just want to make sure we’re good. I brought apology chocolate and everything.” A pause. “Are you even awake?” Another pause. “Fuck it, I’m coming inside.”

* * *

 

Jaquie cracked Chelsey’s door open; she wasn’t about to barge into the room of a girl she barely knew, or anything. Chelsey still seemed to be fast asleep, body turned away from her and tucked in bed. And had that been all there was, Jaquie would have left well enough alone.

Except on her way in, she had seen Paige’s car parked in front of the flat. And unless Jaquie had as good of an attention span as Paige and she’d never noticed it before, Chelsey had a third arm.

Well, son of a bitch.

She thrust the door open, not caring that it slammed against the wall with a thud. The third arm retreated beneath the bed, and she could have sworn she heard someone mutter “ _shit.”_

“Rise and shine, Chelsey!” Jaquie jumped knees first onto the mattress and bounced. She could feel the springs give way under her, pressing into some body-sized object beneath the bed.

Chelsey couldn’t pretend to be asleep any longer. Even though she was still facing away from her, Jaquie could hear her yawn (in an obvious, over exaggerated way. If she was going to lie to her face, she should at least be good at it.)

“Jaquie, what are you doing here?” Chelsey asked naïvely, twisting her body to face her.

“I just wanted to apologize for my behavior last night,” Jaquie explained, equally as innocent in her delivery. If Chelsey wanted to act, Jaquie would act goddamn circles around her. “And since I checked your time tables and saw that you don’t have any classes today, I figured I could make it up to you by spending the _whole day with you!_ ” Jaquie made sure to emphasize her point by pressing her knees into the mattress as enthusiastically as her tone. She could hear muffled noises beneath the bed.

“Oh, that’s really not necess—“

“How should we start? How about a movie?!” Jaquie interrupted, reaching for the laptop on Chelsey’s nightstand. She opened it. Netflix flickered open, asking if Jaquie wanted to continue her viewing of _Heavenly Creatures_.

Oh, this was just _too good._

“I love this movie!” Jaquie exclaimed. “I remember when Paige and me first watched it together. It’s her favorite. Did she show you it to you too?”

“…Yes?”

“ _Really._ I saw her car parked out front. Did she walk home last night?”

And that was when Jaquie saw Chelsey realize that she knew.

“I, I, uhhhhh—“ Chelsey sputtered.

“That’s all I needed to know,” Jaquie hopped off of the bed. “Paige, you can come out now.”

“ _Again?”_ Paige slowly rolled out from underneath the bed. God, they were even wearing mixed and matched pajamas.

“ _I knew it._ ”

“We really weren’t dating!” Paige insisted.

“I KNEW IT.”

“JAQUIE, WE LITERALLY JUST FIGURED IT OUT.”

“I. KNEW.”

“Jaquie—“

“IT.” Jaquie danced around the room. “YOU TWO ARE SO IN LOVE, IT’S DISGUSTING.”

“Now that’s homophobic!”

“I’M GAY TOO, IDIOTS!” She yanked out her phone from her back pocket and pulled up her music library. The Fife and the Drums remix of “God Defend New Zealand” blasted through the speakers. Jaquie twirled around the room, ignoring her friends’ groaning. She refused to hide her pride in her victory.

Somehow, after the fifth or sixth time she repeated the song, Paige and Chelsey managed not to mind.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I figured the best way to start off Lovely Little Femslash was to start with writing my favorite relationship from LLL, with a slight twist! It's important to note for clarity's sake that in this version of canon, Paige, Chelsey, Costa & Jaquie are all Freddie's age, and that the events of this story are taking place at the same time of NMTD's events.  
> Happy femslash, everyone :)


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